AthenaStirs About Header Image (2).png — Meet the Maker

JANELLE WALD

Our grandmothers shared recipes and wisdom that shaped us into strong women. Modern life may be chaotic and our “to do” lists may be longer than our arms, but we haven’t lost touch with that wisdom.

I created AthenaStirs to support our busy lifestyles and help us handle everything on our plates—including making culinary masterpieces our grandmothers would be proud of.

Our aprons complement our creativity and our curves. They clean up easily, keep us cool when the kitchen gets hot, and bring out the goddess under the clutter.

Join Team Athena, apron up, and rock on!

Get your apron on in the kitchen, the garden, or at the craft table! Our aprons can handle your messiest projects and make clean up easy. When you’re finished getting messy, just toss your apron in the laundry. Isn’t uncomplicated nice?

Specialty fabric flatters and wicks moisture away from your body, keeping you cool over a hot stove or under the sun in the garden. A stylish look with no bunching means it doesn’t restrict movement or get in your way, so you’re free to move.

What you need, where you need it. Pockets hold everything from spatulas to garden trowels, keeping it all on hand but out of your way.

It is my hope that you wrap up and feel at home in AthenaStirs: happy and empowered, protected, and thriving!

Get your apron — live your dreams,

— JANELLE

JANUARY 2013

Beginning of product development

SEPTEMBER 2013

Placed first material order

APRIL 2014

First batch of Legacy Collection aprons produced

APRIL 2021

Launch of the website, printed aprons

JANELLE’S STORY

Born in the northern plains of Minnesota, Janelle grew up in a family with French, German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Cooking and baking, drinking coffee, and showing Avon with her grandmothers.

As the daughter of a construction leader and administrative goddess, she grew up organizing and being inspired by architecture and design projects.

After a close-to-home stint at Moorhead State playing women’s tennis, she was driven to break away into exploration. She traveled south and graduated from the University of New Orleans — the school Ellen Degeneres attended for one semester — where she discovered her love of culinary diverse traditions, food, cooking, and fine dining.

She graduated with a marketing degree and landed in culinary-related hospitality positions. She interned for Bourbon Vieux — the largest balcony on Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter.

Following New Orleans, she worked as a consultant in Arizona and returned to the northern-central area, and worked as Assistant Marketing Director for the North Dakota State Fair.

Her love of the arts, outdoors, and healthy living drove her to Denver, CO where she learned to ski and hike in the Rocky Mountains and obtained her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management with a flair for education, wellness, and Peruvian hearts. She worked through graduate school as an assistant at a local French cooking store, offering cooking classes and hard-to-find specialty kitchen tools.

Upon graduation, she put her creativity to work and founded AthenaStirs: a healthy, fresh-thinking, innovative apron and lifestyle brand. She also works as an Executive in workforce development.